Superman: Legacy will have quite a different tone than the Guardians of the Galaxy movies according to James Gunn

A lot of the current naysayers and critics of the James Gunn-led DC universe often use the nature of his past content as examples of how wrong they feel he is for the much-coveted brand. Whereas Gunn has built his creative voice on adolescent humor, many DC loyalists dismiss his writing and directing style by saying his “serious” take on DC’s heroes will include dick jokes and other gross-out humor. While Gunn does play in immature, absurdist humor often, he does try to inject a lot of heart and emotion into his writings as well.

Variety reports on Gunn’s upcoming project — his reboot, Superman: Legacy, which will focus on a younger incarnation of the Man of Steel. The nature of Superman is obviously a more wholesome, innocent, and inspiring one, contrasting with Gunn’s usual viscerally crude humor. However, Gunn knows he needs to approach Superman in a completely new manner. He insists that it will, in no way, feel like a Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

Gunn would explain, “I learned so much from making these movies. But it’s not like Superman is going to have exactly the same vibe as a Guardians movie. It’s actually quite different.” It remains to be seen, but his personal mission is to vary the kinds of stories that superhero movies offer since he feels people do grow weary of the formulas. “I think there is such a thing as superhero fatigue. […] I get fatigued by most spectacle films, by the grind of not having an emotionally grounded story. It doesn’t have anything to do with whether they’re superhero movies or not. If you don’t have a story at the base of it, just watching things bash each other, no matter how clever those bashing moments are, no matter how clever the designs and the VFX are, it just gets fatiguing, and I think that’s very, very real.”

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will be Gunn’s last project with Marvel as he kicks off his DC film slate by directing Superman: Legacy. Gunn still keeps Marvel in his heart, though, as he champions a civil fandom between both companies. Gunn talks about how difficult it was to follow up with Marvel after a movie like Avengers: Endgame brought everything to a head. “I really want Marvel to keep making good movies. I think it’s really hard in the wake of the Blip. There’s this worldwide, universe-wide event that happened. And in truth, everybody would be stark raving mad at this point. So it’s hard to write stories in the wake of that. Which is why the Guardians movies have been easier, because they’re set outside of that a little bit.”